76ers coach Brett Brown said on Wednesday that he expected Simmons to play at some point this season, but the news from Pompey seems to indicate that the chance Simmons takes the court this season are dwindling.

Brown has stated that Simmons needs at least five full practices to play, so he's still not close to being ready to play in a game, and those practices will not occur during the all-star break, meaning the time table continues to shrink for a debut.

The Sixers have refused to give an official timetable for return, and there are no guarantees he'll get back on the court this season.

Former Sixer and current pre and postgame analyst Marc Jackson said this is not a surprise. Jackson suffered the same injury during his NBA career, causing him to miss time.

"I had the exact surgery that he had," Jackson said as a guest on the Sports Bash. "I kept putting off surgery and every offseason I would be in a boot for four weeks."

Jackson explained that he had the surgery and returned to the court for 5-on-5 work and at the six week mark he was fine. However at the seven week mark, he reinjured the foot and had to have a second surgery.

"Six weeks after the second surgery I was back out there," Jackson explained. "I was playing, played the rest of my life, rest of the seasons, rest of my career, and never had another problem".

The bad part for Jackson, he was one of the high percentage of athletes who suffer the Jones fracture, who reinjure the foot.

"But after the second surgery, I had no more problems," Jackson stated. "To this day, I have no more problems."

Jackson says he understands why the Sixers have been cautious with Simmons and was interested to see if keeping him out long, rather than getting back on the floor, even though he may be able to handle playing right now, will prevent reinjuring the foot.